In what is being seen as a furtherance to India’s ‘Act East’ policy and more specifically, a strategically operational deployment in the crucial South China Sea, Indian Navy warships reached Malaysia on Wednesday.

They will be deployed at Malaysia’s port city Kuantan that faces South China sea, for four days, Navy officials said in Delhi. The ships will exercise with Royal Malaysian Naval ships for achieving interoperability in communication and search and rescue procedures.

This visit is aimed at strengthening bilateral ties and enhancing inter-operability between navies of the two friendly nations. During the stay in harbour, various activities such as official calls, reception on board, ship open to visitors, guided tours for Indian naval personnel and professional interaction between personnel of both the navies, are planned, officials said.

India-Malaysia naval cooperation has largely been in the form of training interactions and exchange of goodwill visits by both the navies’ ships. India signed a memorandum of understanding on defence cooperation with Malaysia in 1993. Consequently, the Malaysia-India Defence Cooperation Committee (MIDCOM) was set-up to examine various aspects of defence cooperation. Issues such as training, combined exercises, exchange of personnel are discussed during the MIDCOM meetings.

Earlier the Indian Navy ships had visited Singapore, Jakarta in Indonesia and Freemantle in Australia.

The deployments are part of a three-month-long exercise undertaken by Navy

Though China claims to have territorial ownership in the South China Sea, it is accepted as International waters by several countries. Movements of Indian ships through these waters have been challenged by Chinese Navy in the past. However, it has not flared to a direct physical confrontation yet.

IN has been regularly operating in SCS since the late 80's via the Tu-142's. Though ships were not deployed there. Why the hype suddenly? With USN making an asian pivot more ships and subs will be in SCS for longer duration.